Posts Tagged bug out plans
What to take in a bug out situation
Some missionary goes to the Congo for 6 weeks to preach the salvation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to the natives. As he boards the plane back to the good ole US of A he is not feeling to well. Its just a slight fever, nothing to worry about.
Fast forward 6 weeks, the once unknown airborne virus has wrecked havoc on mankind. With no vaccine and no natural resistance, people are dieing off like the Native Americans did to Small Pox. Which means that entire populations of towns were dieing.
You set your plans into place, but things have not worked out as planned. The daily bicycle ride to the nearest river for water is getting old. The neighbors are running out of food and have turned into beggars. Its time to put your back-up plans into effect; that includes leaving your home, and going to a friends farm.
At the farm there will be seclusion – its miles off the beaten path – there will be water from the well, fresh food out of the garden and fresh meat from the local wildlife. Who knows, there might even be fresh eggs from the chickens. And where there are chickens, there is fried chicken.
Its time to pack up the important things in life and get out of the city. The question is, what do you take?
Some of the stuff is pretty obvious – food, water, clothes, medicine, first aid supplies, sleeping bags, pillows, seeds, can opener, water filters,,,,,,.
Some things are not so obvious – family pictures, letters, bible, books, playing cards, board games, wills and property titles,,,,.
Family pictures – if there is one thing that can not be replaced, its family pictures. Your kids will never be young again, your grandparents will never come back from the grave.
Letters – any hand written letters that retain you family history. Maybe even printed emails from friends and family members.
Bible or any other religious book – for spiritual support.
Books – for education and preservation of knowledge. College grammar books are a good option, as they contain works from a wide variety of authors. Regardless of the situation, the education of children must continue.
Playing cards and board games – helps keep the mind busy and acts as a distraction.
Wills – to make sure that your property gets passed down to who you want it to, its important that everyone have a will. And if you have a will, make sure its signed by a witness upon your signature.
Property titles – ensures that you retain legal ownership of your property. Even during outbreaks of the Black Death in the middle ages, some kind of law and order was maintained.
Post your comments in this forum thread about Forgotten Items.
Maintaining a remote camp
Back around 1980 my parents inherited some land from my grandmother (my dads mom). Shortly after my parents got the land, they moved a 2 bedroom 1 bath trailer house behind my grandmothers house – which had been built around the turn of the 20th century. Mom and dad put a septic system down, setup a water well,,, all the comforts of home, except a home phone. Back in the early 1980 cell phones had not been invented yet. So for maybe 10 years, every time we went to the camp, we lost all contact with the outside world.
I would like to share my past 30 years experience with dealing with camps, and remote locations.
Rodents – This includes mice, rats and squirrels. Not only do they chew holes in the eves of the house, in floors, in the walls, and get into your food stocks, they build nest, piss, and poop everywhere. When you start talking about feces, there is always the chance of diseases.
Squirrels are not too bad about staying in the house, its mostly the mice and rats that like to make themselves at home. What is the difference between a mouse and a rat? About a pound.
If you put rat poison out – sometimes they will get in the walls, die, and start stinking. But for a camp that people do not go to everyday, nobody will be around to smell the stench.
There have been times when I have gone to the camp, and found mice in the toilet – dead. I’am going to guess they jumped into the toilet to get a drink of water, and could not get back out.
When those mice get hungry, they will start chewing into everything they can. This includes peanut butter jars made out of plastic, snacks, chips,,,, anything with a plastic container.
Something of interest, I have kept cases of MREs at the camp and rodents have never gotten into them. Why is it that rodents will chew into a jar of peanut butter, but not an MRE? Maybe because the MREs are double sealed? Maybe because the MREs do not have the smell of food on them from being handled? I dont know exactly, maybe its a combination of several factors?
Food Stockpile -Sometimes my family and I will go to the camp, bring some chili, canned beans, spam,,,,, with plans to either it that weekend, or eat it later on. Well, the canned goods get put in the pantry, forgotten, and expire. We may keep a couple of weeks worth of food up there, and its rarely rotated out. So when we go looking for something to eat, a lot of the cans are expired. This is one of the problems with keeping food stocks at a remote location. If people only go there a few times a year, the canned goods do not get rotated out.
At least one thing with the rodents, they force us to rotate out some of our food stocks. Its like the mouse is saying – “this is going to expire soon, so why not eat it before it expires?” A big chew hole in the side of a plastic jar of peanut butter is a lot more noticeable then a small printed date on the top of the lid.
Every bug out location should have some kind of food stocks, but the problem is keeping the food rotated out. When you have a remote location that may not be visited but a few times a year, food rotation becomes an issue. Its not like the dates can be checked every few weeks.
No frozen foods (or very little) are kept at the camp. There have been times when the freezer stopped working, or the power was out for several days and all of the meat in the freezer spoiled.
Bugging out to the wilderness
There is a theory that has been going around the survival community for decades, and at one time I subscribed to it, but not any more. The theory goes like this – if there is some kind of wide spread disaster, I’am just going to grab my bug out bag, and bug out to the wilderness. From there, my family and I will live in peace as society falls apart. When everything has passed, my family and I will return and help re-build.
Here are some of the reasons why I no longer subscribe to the bug out to the wilderness theory:
Ehrlichiosis
Lyme Disease
Rocky Mountain spotted fever
Tularemia
E. Coli
Cryptosporidium
Dysentery
Vitamin Deficiencies
Culture Shock – that may not be the correct term, but its going to be used anyway
Frost Bite
Heat Stroke
Heat Exhaustion
Only to name a few,,,,,,,,,.
One thing that I have noticed, people who subscribe to the “bug out to the wilderness” theory, usually do not have a grasp on wilderness diseases and how their spread.
All it takes is one tick bite, and the person can contract a number of tick borne infections.
All it takes is one sip of contaminated water, and the victim has some kind of water borne infection.
You can not take someone (like a teenager) out of their comfort zone, take them out to the wilderness, put them in a tent, and expect them to be happy – its not going to happy. The only thing that situation will do, is make matters worse.
On July 16 – 17, 2010, my son, my son-in-law and I went on a camping trip along the Angelina River – which is close to Jasper, Texas. The day time temps were in the mid – upper 90s, with night time temps in the mid 80s. At one point the heat got so bad that I was getting disoriented. Thank goodness the river was right there – so all 3 of us jumped in and cooled off. The question is, what if there was no river too cool off in? With little to no shade, and no way to cool off, heat related problems can be a real issue.
Lets say that you have a nice bug out location picked out – its close to water, has lots of wilderness for hunting and foraging – keep in mind that primitive man did not stay in one location year round. The life of a hunter-gather revolves around being able to move from one location to another. Staying in one location for very long will deplete your sources of roots, berries and wild foods. Even if you are on a river, man can not live on fish alone. Sooner or later, your going to have to relocate to find new food sources.
At least with staying at home, survivalist can stockpile supplies – food, water, water filters, first aid supplies, stockpile seeeds, have a garden, stay in touch with friends and family members, sleep in your own bed,,,.
Real survival plans should start with a realistic approach, and a realistic plan.
Think about you plans, talk to your friends and family members about their plans, and how your plans and their plans can work together.
What kind of disaster are you planning for – hurricane, wildfire, plague, earthquake,,,,,, or something else?
Instead of trying to find the solution here, real through this list of forum threads about Bug Out Plans, and go from there.
3 day bug out test
Back in July of 2008, (July 4th weekend to be exact), my family and I went up to the deer camp. While the kids were having fun playing in the creek, I was taking notes. To my family it was just a relaxing weekend. To me, it was time to test some stuff and take notes.
Infant Formula / baby food: While we were at the camp my step daughter ran out of powdered formula. Its no big deal, we just drove the 15 – 20 miles back to town. On the flip side, what if we could not make the trip? What if there was no store with baby food stocks?
After hurricanes and other natural disasters food shipments are disrupted, this includes baby food.
Joe is at the age were he can eat real food from our table. If we were not able to get formula, he would have had to eat from his mothers plate.
Cooking: This was no big deal. I pulled the pit to the camp and smoked 2 briskets over night, for about 12 hours. Then the next morning I put 2 racks of ribs on. Along with some beans, and corn on the cob. You talk about GOOD!!!! My stepsons truck in the background. We also cooked a pcakge of chicken legs.
Cold Food: One of my investments is a Coleman 100 Quart extreme 5 day cooler. When we left home thursday my wife got 3 bags of ice for the ice chest. Sunday evening the water was still cold. We had ice until saturday evening – and this was with the kids getting soft drinks out for 3 days. Currently I am considering a 7 day coleman extreme ice chest, with at least 100 quarts in size.
Once the food has been cooked, it can be stored in the ice chest to keep it warm. For this purpose a Coleman 7 day extreme 54 quart would be good.
This would have given us about a weeks head start on planting the crops if this would have been a real SHTF situation.
Some bug out plans
Bugging out of a major city sounds a lot easier then it actually is. Chances are the gas stations are going to be empty, and the roads are going to be packed. One of the keys to getting out a city safely, is to either leave early or leave late. But either way, try to get ahead of, or behind the mad rush.
Fuel/Gasoline – having enough fuel to get out will be the first problem. At the first sign of trouble, people are going to make a mad rush to the gas stations and fill up not only their cars and trucks, but every gas can they have. As a hurricane is approaching the Gulf Coast, its not uncommon to see people filling up 55 gallon drums of gasoline.
Maps – the stores will be sold out before you get there. Next time you see a road map of your area go ahead and pick a couple up. Keep a couple of different maps in each car/truck that you own.
Food and water along the bug out route – a lot of people pack clothes, toys, DVD players, even TV’s and other non survival items instead of food and water. Have enough food and water for everyone for at least 4 days. Go ahead and invest some money into some good quality ice chest, like some 5 day extreme Igloo ice chest.
Having a place to go – Most people leave, and have no clue where they are going. Most find themselves out of money and sleeping in their cars rather quickly. Months after the disaster is over, people will still be paying off the credit cards from the hotels and buying food.
Bring tents, sleeping bags, blankets and pillows – If you and your family are unable to find a hotel/motel then maybe you can camp in a state / national park – hey its better then nothing. Sometimes churches outside the affected areas will setup shelters. To make things feel more at home, bring your own blankets and pillows. Shelters may not have enough blankets for everyone, so its good to have your own.
Have a way to cook – bring a portable grill. Even if you have to use twigs and sticks from a road side park, its still a way to cook. A portable grill and the hot meals it provides can be a real morale booster. A single burner stove does not take up a lot of room, and it can provide a good hot meal.
Keep a couple of frozen one gallon bottles of water in the deep freezer. These can take a day or two to thaw out and will keep your food cold longer then a bag of ice. Plus you can drink the water once it thaws. Having your own ice will be nice when the stores are sold out.
Hand sanitizer and toilet paper – bring plenty of both. Chances are the rest areas along the route will be out of toilet paper and soap.
Post your comments in this thread about evacuation strategies in the forum.